Secondary Stress in Compound Germanic Names in Old English Verse

Abstract

Conventional linguistic and metrical perspectives claim that secondary elements of Old English compound names are only stressed if they are disyllabic or inflected. This essay argues that this conclusion derives directly from the use of Eduard Sievers's metrical formalism and that other formalisms may suggest that this counterintuitive result is, in fact, incorrect. Using Geoffrey Russom's innovative word-foot metrical formalism and examining evidence from secondary alliteration patterns, this essay offers evidence that monosyllabic secondary elements were given secondary stress. Furthermore, evidence from the spacing of compound names in the Beowulf manuscript supports such a conclusion. Taken together, the evidence from scansion, alliteration patterns, and the manuscript suggest that both Sieversian formalism and the linguistic claims that it gave rise to should be replaced.